Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

12 weeks, 1 hour a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Intermediate
Subtitles

English

Found in

Overview

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Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines provides a comprehensive path to streamlining software delivery by reducing manual and error-prone tasks. The course emphasizes the importance of continuous integration and deployment in modern DevOps workflows, demonstrating how automation accelerates releases and improves reliability. Learners explore GitLab's core components, CI/CD pipeline structure, runners, and GUI to gain a solid foundation for building and managing pipelines effectively. Through hands-on exercises, the course guides learners in verifying, securing, packaging, and deploying code, while highlighting techniques to enhance pipeline speed and maintainability. Real-world scenarios demonstrate integration with tools like Kubernetes and Terraform, giving learners the ability to automate complex workflows and achieve consistent, repeatable deployments. The extended tutorial format ensures participants can confidently implement DevOps strategies while addressing common challenges in CI/CD processes. This course is ideal for DevOps and DevSecOps engineers, software developers, release engineers, and site reliability engineers seeking to automate and optimize software delivery. Basic familiarity with software development lifecycle concepts, Git, and DevOps practices will help learners maximize the course benefits. By the end of the course, learners will be able to design, configure, and optimize GitLab CI/CD pipelines, integrate pipelines with modern DevOps tools, secure code, automate deployments, and troubleshoot issues effectively, gaining practical skills that can be applied immediately to improve software delivery workflows and operational efficiency.

Syllabus

Understanding Life Before DevOps

This module examines the manual processes of software development before the advent of DevOps and automation tools. Learners will explore the challenges of building, testing, and deploying code by hand, including performance and security testing, and understand how these pain points led to the rise of DevOps practices. By the end, you'll appreciate the motivations for modern CI/CD pipelines and automated workflows.

Practicing Basic Git Commands

This module introduces essential Git commands for effective version control, including committing, branching, tagging, and synchronizing repositories. Learners will gain practical skills to manage code changes, collaborate with teams, and maintain reliable project histories using Git's distributed architecture.

Understanding GitLab Components

This module introduces the essential components of GitLab, including projects, groups, issues, branches, and merge requests, and explains their roles in collaborative DevOps workflows. Learners will explore how these elements support software development, code review, and team collaboration throughout the software development life cycle. Practical examples illustrate how to organize and manage work effectively using GitLab's features.

Understanding GitLab's CI/CD Pipeline Structure

This module introduces the structure and key components of GitLab CI/CD pipelines, including stages, jobs, and commands. Learners will discover how pipelines automate code verification, packaging, and deployment, and how to interpret pipeline statuses for effective software delivery. The module also covers different pipeline types and the benefits of continuous integration and delivery.

Installing and Configuring GitLab Runners

This module guides learners through the process of installing and configuring GitLab Runners, exploring different runner types, executors, and their roles in CI/CD pipelines. You will gain practical experience with runner setup across various platforms and learn best practices for optimizing performance and security.

Verifying Your Code

This module guides learners through the process of building and verifying code using GitLab CI/CD pipelines. You will explore essential verification techniques such as code quality checks, automated functional and fuzz testing, and accessibility validation to ensure robust and reliable software. By the end, you'll be equipped to implement and configure these verification steps in your own projects.

Securing Your Code

This module guides learners through integrating and configuring GitLab security scanners such as SAST, DAST, Secret Detection, Container Scanning, and License Compliance within CI/CD pipelines. You will learn how to interpret security reports, manage vulnerabilities, and ensure your code and dependencies remain secure throughout the development lifecycle.

Packaging and Deploying Code

This module guides learners through the process of packaging and deploying code using GitLab's package and container registries, CI/CD pipelines, and integration with Docker and cloud environments. You will gain practical skills in authenticating, building, storing, and deploying software artifacts, including the use of review apps for testing deployments.

Enhancing the Speed and Maintainability of CI/CD Pipelines

This module guides learners through advanced strategies to optimize CI/CD pipelines for both speed and maintainability. You will explore the use of caching, artifacts, reusable configurations, and containerization to streamline workflows and enhance security. Practical examples and best practices will help you implement these techniques effectively in GitLab environments.

Extending the Reach of CI/CD Pipelines

This module explores advanced CI/CD pipeline capabilities, including integrating performance monitoring, leveraging feature flags for business-driven releases, and implementing container scanning for enhanced security. Learners will gain practical skills to extend automation workflows beyond basic build and deployment tasks.

End-to-End Example

This module guides learners through a complete software delivery workflow using GitLab, from setting up a local repository to configuring CI/CD pipelines, implementing code verification and security checks, and deploying to various environments. By following a practical end-to-end example, learners will gain hands-on experience integrating quality and security tools into automated pipelines.

Troubleshooting and the Road Ahead with GitLab

This module guides learners through troubleshooting complex GitLab CI/CD pipelines, managing infrastructure using GitOps principles, and leveraging tools like Ansible for resource configuration. It also examines emerging DevOps trends and strategies for accelerating software delivery cycles. By the end, learners will be equipped to optimize both their workflows and infrastructure management practices.